Halloween Marketing Ideas: Trick-or-Treat to Online Sales Success in 2023

Are you ready to brew up some Halloween marketing magic that'll have new customers knocking on your door like trick-or-treaters on Halloween night?

The key to success lies in planning your Halloween marketing ideas well in advance. If you're seeking creative and fresh ideas for this year's marketing campaigns, you're in for a treat.

So without further ado, let’s go deep diving.

Halloween Spending Trends 2023

Retailers should consider the spending habits of consumers for the upcoming 2023 holiday shopping season. Let's get started with key statistics surveyed from 18,906 US consumers in a recent August report by PowerReviews on Halloween spending trends in 2023.

87% of consumers plan to celebrate Halloween this year:

• 32% of respondents plan to spend between $1 and $100 on Halloween-related items
• 28% intend to spend between $101 and $250 for their Halloween purchases.
• 17% anticipate spending in the range of $251 to $500.
• 9% of respondents reported that they do not plan to spend anything on Halloween.
• 7% plan to allocate between $501 and $750 for Halloween shopping.
• A small percentage intend to allocate budgets ranging from $750 to $2000 or even more for their Halloween-related expenses.

73% of consumers say their Halloween shopping will be impacted in some way by the broader economic environment:

• 24% will be reusing/ recycling existing costumes
• 29% will be shopping in discount stores
• 34% will be buying cheaper Halloween candy
• 34% of people are either not buying or reducing their Halloween decoration purchases.
• 44% say they will be looking for bargains/ using coupons for Halloween items.

What insights can these statistics offer you as online merchants?

Halloween spending in 2023 is expected to lean heavily towards thriftiness, sustainability, and seeking value for money. Consumers are likely to prioritize reusing/ recycling, bargain hunting, and cost-effective choices in their Halloween preparations.

To cater to these evolving trends, retailers should tailor their Halloween strategies to focus on eco-friendly choices, cost-effective selections, and promotions that offer savings and discounts can effectively engage budget-conscious Halloween enthusiasts.

But that's not all - there's a touch of magic waiting for you in the next section!

Explore innovative ideas below to refine your marketing strategies, custom-tailored for the Halloween 2023 landscape, and find ways to adapt your campaigns to meet consumer demands.

Halloween Marketing Ideas To Scare Up Your Online Sales

1. Craft a Halloween-Ready Homepage Design

Transforming your homepage into a Halloween-themed delight is a fantastic way to captivate visitors and boost sales.

Start by crafting a captivating banner image featuring Halloween motifs, like whimsical pumpkins or spooky moonlit scenes. Embrace Halloween colors like orange and black for background, headings, or buttons, and select playful, themed fonts for added charm.

Image: FoxEcom

Consider using the Foxify page builder app, a user-friendly tool, to effortlessly build and customize your homepage, product page, landing page, and more for the Halloween season.

Foxify offers a variety of ready-made homepage templates across different industries to inspire your design and product presentation needs. With Foxify, you can easily create stunning Halloween sliders, engaging animation effects, image banners, customer testimonials, countdown tools, product collections, and more to suit your Halloween theme.

To cater to Halloween shoppers, create sections on your homepage showcasing a wide range of Halloween products at various price points. However, keep in mind the importance of prominently featuring budget-friendly Halloween products.

As mentioned earlier, 32% of consumers plan to spend between $1 and $100 on Halloween-related items, so you can focus on presenting products in this price range. Use enticing visuals and persuasive descriptions to communicate the value for money.

Furthermore, since the majority will be looking for discount stores and bargains this year, ensure that visitors can easily find your Halloween discounts and promotions. Utilize phrases like "Halloween Essentials Under $30" or "Spooktacular Savings" to grab their attention.

Take inspiration from Amazon; they offer different deals and budgets for a wide range of products. They provide deals under $25 and various products under $30 and $50, catering to diverse budgets.

 Image: Amazon

Image: Amazon

2. Formulate Catchy Halloween Slogans

Halloween, a super spooky night, is something everyone looks forward to, whether you're a kid or a grown-up. It's a fun day with costumes, pumpkin carving, decorations, and yummy treats. And when it comes to celebrating Halloween, shopping is a must!

Both online retailers and brick-and-mortar stores get into the Halloween spirit and offer big sales. The slogans you use are essentially important for getting people to buy things during this spooky time of year.

Here are some catchy Halloween sale slogans that you can consider:

• "Creepin' It Real with Spooktacular Savings!"
• "Frighteningly Fantastic Deals Await You!"
• "Halloween Howls and Discounts Galore!"
• "Witches Brew Up Discounts, Potions, and More!"
• "Savings So Good, It's Almost Scary!"
• "Get Ready to Scream... with Joy for Our Discounts!"
• "Savings That Haunt the Competition Away!"
• "Trick-or-Treat Yourself to Savings, Not Tricks!"
• "No Need for Witchcraft When You Have Our Discounts!"
• "Ghastly Good Deals for Your Halloween Needs!"
• "Ghostly Discounts Are Lurking Here!"
• "Wickedly Good Savings Await You!"
• "Cauldron of Discounts: Stirring Up Savings!"
• "Don't Be Spooked by High Prices; Shop Our Sale!"

Feel free to use them right away, or adapt these slogans to suit your specific Halloween marketing campaign.

Let’s take a look at Halloween phrases crafted by Kohl’s on its website.

Image: Kohl’s

"Creepy, Sweet & your Halloween’s complete." This is a catchy and creative phrase that combines the spooky and sweet aspects of Halloween. It suggests that Kohl's has everything you need for a well-rounded Halloween celebration.

Image: Kohl’s

"Bone-chilling finds for every budget." - This phrase cleverly plays on the Halloween theme while highlighting affordability. It conveys the idea that shoppers can discover thrilling Halloween items without breaking the bank.

3. Design Captivating Halloween Pop-ups

Enhance your Halloween marketing campaign by incorporating imaginative pop-ups that captivate your audience. Let's explore some innovative pop-up concepts below:

Spin the Halloween Wheel

Implement an interactive pop-up where visitors can spin a virtual wheel for a chance to win exclusive discounts, treats, or promotions. This gamification strategy offers your visitors a distinctive and captivating experience while simultaneously boosting the conversion rate.

You can use the free FoxKit app to create a gamified pop-up lucky wheel in just minutes.

Use Halloween Pop-ups with Time-Limited Offers

Generate a sense of urgency by employing pop-ups that highlight time-sensitive deals. These pop-ups can present exclusive discounts or promotions, encouraging visitors to complete their purchases before the clock runs out.

For instance, you can use phrases like 'Hurry and grab your Halloween treats with a 24-hour 15% discount!’

Create Excitement with Countdown Halloween Pop-ups

Build anticipation with countdown-style pop-ups that can showcase a ticking clock or a Halloween-themed timer.

These timers can count down to a special Halloween sale or event, adding an element of suspense and excitement for your audience. Use FOMO-emphasized phrases like "Don't miss out! Our Halloween sale starts in...".

Coupon Halloween Pop-ups

Offer value directly to your visitors with coupon pop-ups. These can provide instant discounts or promo codes for Halloween-related products.

Customize the pop-ups to match your Halloween theme and encourage immediate purchases. For instance, "Unlock a 20% discount on all Halloween costumes today!"

Spirit Halloween presented a Halloween pop-up that offers customers a 20% discount on their products when they enter an email address.

Image: Spirit Halloween

4. Create Irresistible Halloween Product Bundles

To create product bundles that resonate with the 2023 Halloween spending trends, consider the following strategies:

Costume Refresh Bundles

Notice the trend of people reusing their old costumes? Well, you can tap into that by creating ‘Costume Refresh Packs’.

These packs can contain cool stuff like costume add-ons, makeup kits, and fun DIY costume ideas. They help folks breathe new life into their old costumes without having to buy a completely new one.

Family-Sized Savings

For online merchants catering to families or groups of customers, consider creating bundles like the ‘Family Halloween Pack.’

This package includes costumes, decorations, and candy suitable for multiple family members. It's a great way to highlight savings per person and make it more cost-effective for group celebrations.

DIY Decor Bundles

Acknowledge the desire to spend less on decorations by providing "DIY Decor Bundles." These could include craft supplies, stencils, and templates for customers to create their own Halloween decorations, promoting a budget-friendly and creative approach.

Candy and Treat Combos

Online merchants can bundle various Halloween candies and treats into "Trick-or-Treat Delights" packages.

For example, M&M’S provides a wide array of candy options to satisfy every candy lover's cravings. They offer Halloween Bundle gift boxes, Happy favor packs, bulk candy, and candy assortments. Customers also have the flexibility to filter and sort these options by best sellers or price.

By offering these various packages, you're appealing to customers who are looking to save on their Halloween candy purchases while still ensuring a delightful variety of treats for Halloween night.

Image: M&M’S

Pro Tips: 

As the holiday season drives everyone in search of sales, boosting customer purchases becomes a strategic move. Once you've identified the products suitable for bundling, crafting enticing bundle discounts is the next step to capture customer interest.

For seamless integration of bundle discounts into your online store, Shopify bundle apps offer a convenient solution. Our top pick is the Kaching Bundle Quantity Breaks app, streamlining the process of creating tiered pricing options. This app simplifies the publication of customized bundle deals on your chosen product pages, allowing you to set discounts in percentages, dollar amounts, or specific prices.

What sets this app apart is its flexibility. You can effortlessly align the bundle deals with your store's aesthetics by customizing colors and styling. Additionally, the app provides a dashboard feature to monitor bundle performance, helping you identify popular bundles that can be consistently implemented in the future.

Unlock the perks of Kaching Bundle Quantity Breaks now at a special 20% discount using code FOXECOM20.

5. Host Memorable Halloween Online Events

Halloween presents a fantastic opportunity to unleash creativity and have some festive fun! Enhance your marketing campaign by spotlighting a unique Halloween activity.

Let's explore some online events that entice participants to join:

Online Pumpkin-Carving Competition: With a significant portion of consumers focusing on thriftiness, a pumpkin-carving event aligns perfectly with this trend. It's an activity that allows participants to express their creativity without breaking the bank.

The primary expenditure involves procuring pumpkins, which can be managed comfortably even within a tight budget.

To make it even more enticing, you can offer incentives or bonuses for the winners, like a gift card, an exclusive Halloween-themed product package, or a substantial discount on their upcoming purchase.

Crossgates hosted a virtual pumpkin carving contest, presented by Fidelis Care. Participants can send a photo of their pumpkin jack-o'-lantern to Crossgates' email for a chance to win a $100 gift card.

Image: Crossgates

Virtual Costume Contest: Since people plan to reuse and recycle existing costumes for Halloween 2023, a costume contest is a great way for them to show off their creative reuse of costumes. Offer prizes or discounts for the most innovative recycled costumes.

Halloween DIY Decorations Contest: A DIY decorations contest can be a perfect fit for Halloween this year. Encourage participants to create their Halloween decorations using affordable materials or items they already have at home.

They can submit photos or videos of their creations for a chance to win prizes or discounts on your products.

This event not only aligns with the trend of budget-consciousness but also fosters creativity and community engagement. It's an excellent opportunity to showcase how your products can be used in DIY projects for additional sales, such as DIY kits, decoration accessories, etc.

6. Spread Laughter with Halloween Memes on Social Media

Engaging your audience during the Halloween season goes beyond promotions; it's about creating a memorable and entertaining experience.

One effective way to connect with shoppers is by sharing fun Halloween memes on your social media platforms.

Here are some creative ideas for Halloween memes:

Price Tag Panic: Share memes that capture the funny side of shoppers discovering budget-friendly Halloween items. Use captions like "When you find Halloween decorations that don't haunt your wallet!"

DIY Delights: Create memes that celebrate the creativity of DIY costumes and decorations. Share user-generated content of cost-effective DIY Halloween projects with captions like "Budget-friendly brilliance!"

Discount Dilemmas: Showcase humorous situations where a shopper triumphs over high prices, like a superhero conquering price tags. Caption it with "Defeating Halloween costs, one discount at a time!"

Here are 5 meme makers that help you generate memes effortlessly:

• Imgflip: It is an online tool that enables you to generate, modify, and share your memes online. Imgflip operates directly from your web browser, eliminating the need for any installations on your computer.
• EaseUS Video Editor: For Windows users, there's a great app called EaseUS Video Editor for meme creation. It provides numerous user-friendly features, allowing you to easily customize your chosen meme image to your liking.
• Mematic: Mematic is a popular application among iPhone users for crafting and enhancing memes directly on their mobile devices. Mematic allows you to insert text into both photo and video memes, freely adjust text placement, design collages, and incorporate a variety of creative elements into your images.
• Quickmeme: Quickmeme is the top choice for a straightforward meme-making experience. You can browse trending memes to see the latest popular ones. To create a meme, simply click "upload a funny" for a fresh start. Alternatively, you can choose a famous image and add your own text using the "caption a meme" feature.
• Canva: Canva distinguishes itself by offering professionally designed meme templates, setting it apart from other platforms. Additionally, Canva boasts an extensive library of over a million stock photos, providing a significantly larger selection compared to competing websites.

7. Organize a "Guess How Many" social media giveaway

What's the highlight of Halloween? Without a doubt, it's the candy. Enhance the allure of your social media contests for this season by hosting a "guess how many" competition. In this contest, you can fill a jar or transparent container with your favorite Halloween treats.

Motivate your followers to take part by estimating the quantity in the comments, and as a reward, offer a gift card to the person with the closest guess. The additional comments generated by this contest are likely to enhance your visibility on social media feeds in the future.

Furthermore, this social media marketing concept promises to deliver delightful rewards to both you and your valued customers.

Fox Favors introduced the "Guess How Many" contest on their Facebook page. Followers can join by making their best guess regarding the number of candy pieces in the picture. The participant with the closest guess will have the opportunity to win $10 in Fox Favors Credit.

Image: Fox Favors

Ready to Win the Halloween Marketing Campaign?

Halloween is a great time for online marketing. It's when people have fun dressing up and enjoying spooky things.

Good marketers can use this fun time to make campaigns that fit with Halloween, so people choose their brand for spooky stuff.

We’ve discussed many ways to make your campaign great, but these are just the start. The key is timing and making content that suits your audience.

To truly shine, stay attuned to current trends and audience preferences. Inject your brand's distinctive voice into your campaign, moving beyond generic "Halloween" themes.

Try new things, and your Halloween marketing can be a success that lasts even after Halloween is over.